New Ad Near 1-84 Promotes The Site Of What Will Become The State's Largest Mosque
By ANN MARIE SOMMA
Courant Staff Writer
December 23, 2007
A billboard promoting Islam near the Cheshire exit, and only a short distance from the construction of what will be the largest mosque in the state, encourages drivers to call a toll-free number to learn about the world's second largest religion.
The Connecticut chapter of the Islamic Circle of North America, which paid for the billboard, has sponsored similar billboards nationwide to inform non-Muslims about Islam and to correct negative stereotypes that emerged after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Islamic Circle held its national convention in July at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, an event attended by about 15,000 people.
"What we see in the news media and television is a picture of Muslims that is far from reality," said Muhammad Ahmad, a member of the Islamic Circle of North America and a doctor practicing internal medicine in Chicago. "Unless we go out and tell our neighbors who we are, there is no one who will correct the image."
Ahmad, who answers the 1-877-WHY-ISLAM phone lines, said he's received calls from curious priests, students, Muslims, non-Muslims and newspaper reporters. Some callers have even tried to convert him to their faith. Nationally, the group has mailed out about 3,000 translations of the Quran and other literature about Islam since it began its campaign years ago.
"We are giving out information. What people want to do with that information is their problem," Ahmad said.
A short distance off I-84 is the construction site for the new United Muslim Masjid of Waterbury. Naveed Khan, a member of the mosque, said the group is building a 24,000-square-foot structure because its current mosque on Prospect Street can't comfortably accommodate the growing number of Muslims in the Greater Waterbury area who pray there five times a day and gather for Islamic holidays.
In the last decade, attendance at the mosque has grown, along with the increasing numbers of Muslims moving into Greater Waterbury from Albania, Ghana and several other countries. The new mosque will have a community hall, a library, a gymnasium, a learning center, and a minaret tall enough to be seen from I-84. The new mosque also will allow its members to hold more outreach activities to educate the public about Islam and Muslims.
Khan said the mosque did not sponsor the billboard on I-84, which has a rendering of the new mosque and the words "Learn More About Your Neighbors." But its message is a tenet of Muslim faith, "Dawah," an Arabic term obligating Muslims to invite others to Islam.
"This is a national effort to establish some understanding of Islam, to start an interfaith dialogue," Khan said. "There is a great need to educate people about Islam after 9/11. As a community we need to address this issue."
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